Imagine this scenario: You have significantly more patients in your practice without having to do more spinal screenings.
You have increased the amount of money each patient spends in your practice and the number of times a patient buys from you, so you are making money outside of appointments, too. And you are generating more profit in your practice, so you don’t have to spend years building your practice before getting in the black.
This outcome is possible and you have the opportunity to grow your practice in a way that you’ve never been able to before—by harnessing the power of online marketing. And if you know how to leverage this power the right way, you’ll be able to generate passive income for your practice and make money outside of your scheduled patients.
You know that appointments mean income. The more appointments you have, the more income you make, right? But at some point in practice, you reach a limit and can’t see any more people. You’ve reached a “schedule cap.” Admittedly, that’s a good problem to have, but the issue is that you’ve now hit a ceiling. When your books are full, you’ve also reached a “profit cap.” Meaning you cannot make more income in your practice once you’re fully booked.
There are also times when you can’t fill up your schedule and have no patients to see, maybe because you’re just starting a practice or have a practice but are in a slump. If you have no appointments, you can’t make money. Now imagine that appointments weren’t the only way to generate profit in your practice and that you could make money outside of booking appointments.
You can do this through something called the “profit triangle.” This is a strategy that the largest companies in the world use, but no one has applied it to your industry until now. The profit triangle has three components that work together in unison so you can build a successful, profitable practice around the clock. Everything you do to grow your practice should be focused on these three areas.
Increase the number of patients
The public is being bombarded with more marketing messages than ever before, and where practice owners go wrong is in how they’re talking to potential patients. These DCs make it all about them and the services they offer, and not about the patients’ needs. To increase your number of patients, start by getting to know their pain points. If you know what your patients’ biggest needs are, then you know their top questions and can speak to solving them.
As everyone else tries to sell them services, you’ll focus on understanding what these patients are looking for.
This way, you’ll increase your number of patients by attracting them with value that lets them know you are the best chiropractor for them. Your offer for a new-patient appointment should ultimately be about them and their desired outcome. Emphasize what they want to achieve and show them how you can help them get there.
That’s the payoff for any potential patient and what they actually care about. They want to know how you can give them what they want. That’s how you convert them into regular patients and ultimately increase the number of patients in your practice.
Increase the value per patient
This part of the profit triangle is all about increasing the amount a patient spends with you. When you understand what your patient needs—and can demonstrate that you have a variety of solutions that can help— their need for you rises. This means your value to them instantly increases, and how much patients will spend with you increases outside of the appointment.
Think about what you could offer in addition to your core services. Some examples are an e-book, manual, guide, workshop, or products you can sell via your website or in your practice that are relevant to what your patients need.
The payoff here is that once patients have spent money with you, they’re more willing to spend even more money on what you offer. Therefore, the value per patient increases. When each patient is worth more, you can make profit outside of your schedule.
Increase the number of transactions per person
This component of the profit triangle is about having frequent, strategic communication with your current and prospective patients so they buy repeatedly. If you market with value upfront, then each person you market to in your community is going to be more interested in working with you. So, whether they’re a patient or not, you are able to sell to them and sell more than just an appointment.
So ask yourself this: When was the last time you contacted your list about something other than getting scheduled? Do you stop communicating once someone becomes a patient? How about if they never schedule in the first place?
If you do stop, then you’re missing out on 60 to 70 percent of your audience because many of your leads won’t convert into patients right away. If you don’t have anything other than chiropractic services to offer, they may not be interested and you’ll want to create an opportunity to engage with them another way.
Have offers and products relevant to what your audience needs so they can buy from you differently. If they don’t want to schedule with you, offer them something else, such as an e-book or workshop. For your current patients, this is where you can maximize on the opportunity to offer more because they’re already in your practice.
All of your communication should have a purpose and an end result in mind to offer value, to offer solutions outside of the appointment, and to create more opportunity for everyone— both patients and non-patients—to buy from you.
If you look at the full profit triangle and do the math, it’s a pretty powerful formula. If you have three times the number of prospects and patients, and three times more offers to give them, then they are three times more likely to buy.
This could be a game-changer for your practice and the key for you to break through the “schedule cap,” so you can grow your practice quickly and serve your patients on a completely new level.
Jen Faber, DC, is the founder of the Freedom Formula and coaches chiropractors on how to build a practice that gives them freedom and the lifestyle they want. She went from being a burned-out associate to building a successful six-figure practice working less than part-time. She can be contacted through drjenfaber.com.
